From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Counsels on the Inner Life  (10)   
      
      What will the flames feed upon, but your sins? The more you spare   
   yourself now, and indulge the desires of the body, the more severe   
   will be your punishment hereafter, and the more fuel you gather for   
   the flames. In whatever things a man sins, in those will he be the   
   more severely punished (Wisd.11:17). Then will the slothful be spurred   
   by fiery goads, and the gluttonous tormented by dire hunger and   
   thirst. Then will the luxurious and pleasure-loving be plunged into   
   burning pitch and stinking sulphur, while the envious will howl their   
   grief like wild dogs.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2 Ch 1   
      
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   June 19th - Sts. Gervasius and Protasius   
      
   Martyrs of Milan, probably in the second century, patrons of the city   
   of Milan and of haymakers; invoked for the discovery of thieves.   
   Feast, in the Latin Church, 19 June, the day of the translation of the   
   relics; in the Greek Church, 14 Oct., the supposed day of their death.   
   Emblems: scourge, club, sword.   
      
   The Acts (Acta SS., June, IV, 680 and 29) were perhaps compiled from a   
   letter (Ep. liii) to the bishops of Italy, falsely ascribed to St.   
   Ambrose. They are written in a very simple style, but it has been   
   found impossible to establish their age. According to these, Gervasius   
   and Protasius were twins, children of martyrs. Their father Vitalis, a   
   man of consular dignity, suffered martyrdom at Ravenna under Nero (?).   
   The mother Valeria died for her faith at Milan. The sons are said to   
   have been scourged and then beheaded, during the reign of Nero, under   
   the presidency of Anubinus or Astasius, and while Cajus was Bishop of   
   Milan. Some authors place the martyrdom under Diocletian, while others   
   object to this time, because they fail to understand how, in that   
   case, the place of burial, and even the names, could be forgotten by   
   the time of St. Ambrose, as is stated. De Rossi places their death   
   before Diocletian. It probably occurred during the reign of Antoninus   
   (161-168).   
      
   St. Ambrose, in 386, had built a magnificent basilica at Milan. Asked   
   by the people to consecrate it in the same solemn manner as was done   
   in Rome, he promised to do so if he could obtain the necessary relics.   
   In a dream he was shown the place in which such could be found. He   
   ordered excavations to be made in the cemetery church of Sts. Nabor   
   and Felix, outside the city, and there found the relics of Sts.   
   Gervasius and Protasius. He had them removed to the church of St.   
   Fausta, and on the next day into the basilica, which later received   
   the name San Ambrogio Maggiore. Many miracles are related to have   
   occurred, and all greatly rejoiced at the signal favour from heaven,   
   given at the time of the great struggle between St. Ambrose and the   
   Arian Empress Justina. Of the vision, the subsequent discovery of the   
   relics and the accompanying miracles, St. Ambrose wrote to his sister   
   Marcellina. St. Augustine, not yet baptized, witnessed the facts, and   
   relates them in his "Confessions", IX, vii; in "De civ. Dei", XXII,   
   viii; and in "Serm. 286 in natal. Ss. Mm. Gerv. et Prot.", they are   
   also attested by St. Paulinus of Nola, in his life of St. Ambrose. The   
   latter died 397 and, as he had wished, his body was, on Easter Sunday,   
   deposited in his basilica by the side of these martyrs. In 835,   
   Angilbert II, a successor in the See of Milan, placed the relics of   
   the three saints in a porphyry sarcophagus, and here they were again   
   found, January, 1864 (Civiltà Cattolica, 1864, IX, 608, and XII, 345).   
      
   A tradition claims that after the destruction of Milan by Frederick   
   Barbarossa, his chancellor Rainald von Dassel had taken the relics   
   from Milan, and deposited them at Altbreisach in Germany, whence some   
   came to Soissons; the claim is rejected by Milan (Biraghi, "I tre   
   sepoleri", etc. Milan, 1864). Immediately after the finding of the   
   relics by St. Ambrose, the cult of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius was   
   spread in Italy, and churches were built in their honour at Pavia,   
   Nola, etc. In Gaul we find churches dedicated to them, about 400, at   
   Mans, Rouen, and Soissons. At the Louvre there is now a famous picture   
   of the saints by Lesueur (d. 1655), which was formerly in their church   
   at Paris. According to the "Liber Pontificalis", Innocent I (402-417)   
   dedicated a church to them at Rome. Later, the name of St. Vitalis,   
   their father, was added to the title. Very early their names were   
   inserted in the Litany of the Saints. The whole history of these   
   saints has received a great deal of adverse criticism. Some deny their   
   existence, and make them a Christianized version of the Dioscuri of   
   the Romans. Thus Harris, "The Dioscuri in Christian Legend", but see   
   "Analecta Boll." (1904), XXIII, 427.   
      
   http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06537a.htm   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   God overthrows the thrones of those who are disobedient to His law. My   
   political views are those of the Our Father.   
   -- Saint Avitus of Vienne   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he   
   made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and   
   they who belong to his company experience it.  (Wis 2:23-24 )   
      
      
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   Catholic Mother's Daily Prayer for the Children   
      
   O Mary, Immaculate Virgin and Sorrowful Mother,   
   commend our beloved children to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Who   
   refuses nothing to His Mother.   
      
   Holy Guardian Angels,   
   Pray for them.   
   St, Joseph, powerful patron,   
   Pray for them.   
   St. John, beloved disciple of the Heart of Jesus,   
   Pray for them.   
   St. Augustine,   
   Pray for them.   
   St. Anthony,   
   Pray for them.   
   St. Anne, mother of Mary,   
   Pray for them.   
   St. Monica   
   Pray for them.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)